


The Things That Un-Happened

by spoowriterfic



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:09:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23504383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoowriterfic/pseuds/spoowriterfic
Summary: Three vignettes set between the season 2 finale and the beginning of season 3 when Waverly and Nicole have a moment of clarity (or three) about their other selves.
Relationships: Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught
Comments: 5
Kudos: 91





	The Things That Un-Happened

**Author's Note:**

> I was in the middle of writing a deliberately humorous piece wherein Waverly, Nicole, and Wynonna go miniature golfing, which goes about as well as you'd expect, when everyone's lives turned upside down from COVID-19 and I just couldn't be deliberately funny anymore.
> 
> So I decided to be the change I wanted to see in the world and write something unapologetically schmoopy. Hope it gives you a moment (or three) of joy in these difficult times. 
> 
> (I'll finish the miniature golf story at some point when I remember how to be silly.)

“Do you believe in soulmates?” Waverly asks late one night a couple weeks after they let Alice go. They’re curled up together in Waverly’s bed, Nicole’s arms tight and comforting around her, warding off at least for a while the nightmares they both know are coming.

Waverly’s have been about Alice’s escape going wrong (and, Nicole thinks, about losing her to Shae or Widow venom or jealousy, but she won’t talk about those); Nicole can’t blame her since she can’t bring herself to tell Waverly about her own – about screams and canoes and the kind of terror only a six-year-old can feel.

She knows why Waverly’s asking about soulmates – because it’s something she’s asked herself at least ten times every day as she tries desperately to see past the fog in her memory to figure out if she – if the _other_ she – had fallen as hard and as fast as she did in this life.

And the only answer she can come up with is…she thinks that other version of herself might have fallen harder. Faster.

Or maybe it just feels that way now because, in the end, the other her got only a matter of minutes with Waverly.

A lifetime feels too short; the idea of _minutes_ is intolerable.

There was something about pickles.

She _hates_ pickles.

“I’d eat pickles for you, you know?” she murmurs, by way of an answer. She smiles when Waverly cranes her head to stare at her as though she’s said something ridiculous – which she has – but then her eyes go distant for a second.

“Oh my God, you _did_!” Waverly turns to face her fully, and for just a second, it’s _there_ – that little look of absolute amazement that still (will always) break Nicole’s heart, just a little. “I made you…something…and it had pickles in it and you took it and…and you told…you told…someone….” She trails off, the memory fading away all the faster for her trying to hold onto it, and she shakes her head. “You ate pickles for me!” she coos, dismissing the now-vanished memory as she kisses a line across Nicole’s jaw. “That’s so sweet.”

A little tired and a lot love-drunk, Nicole murmurs, “I’d do anything for you, Waverly Earp.”

“I know,” Waverly says, just as quietly. “So answer the question?”

Nicole sighs. “You _know_ the answer.” She rests her cheek on the top of Waverly’s head and sighs. She’s told Waverly she loves her; she’s told Waverly she’ll be there for her forever; she’s told Waverly the whole story about Shae, even the embarrassing parts; she’s told Waverly about the birthday party her perpetually-travelling parents had the neighbors plan and host for her (it wasn’t, she had told Waverly, as bad as it sounded; for once, she had gotten a store-bought cake). Hell, she’s told Waverly about the night she tripped over CJ’s tail and almost broke her nose with her own bedroom door. But for some reason, she can’t say _this_.

Somehow Waverly senses where her thoughts are going; she looks up at Nicole with compassion in her eyes. “I know,” she whispers, smiling, absolving her inability to just _say it_. Because of course Waverly knows the feeling. Intimately.

Their eyes lock, and everything neither of them can say swirls in the air between them.

_Of course I believe in soulmates, Waverly, because you’re mine_.

_Nicole, I love you_.

_Nothing in this world scares me more than losing you._

_I need you, Waverly. I’ve never needed someone before. It scares me too._

Waverly smiled her kindest, gentlest, tenderest smile. “I believe in soulmates,” she whispers.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Somehow that feels more significant, more weighted, than the _I love you_ Waverly can’t say yet.

“Good,” Nicole said, pulling Waverly even tighter and using her longer arms to pull her bonus blanket over her before reaching over and turning off the light as Waverly makes a contented noise and snuggles closer.

She waits for Waverly’s breathing to even out and for her arm to go slack against her stomach.

Then she lets the darkness make her brave – or maybe a little scared, a little desperate. She whispers, “Me too, Waves.”

* * *

“I don’t get it,” Waverly huffs in mock irritation as she lays the homemade ice pack on Nicole’s purple, swollen ankle. “You were just going to get _lunch_.”

“There was a puppy?” Nicole mutters, looking down at her hands – which are clenched tightly together, the only outward sign of how badly she must be hurting.

“A puppy.”

“It ran in front of me.” Nicole shrugs, biting her lower lip, then glancing up with – purposefully, Waverly is sure – her most charming smile. “What was I supposed to do?”

Waverly shakes her head fondly as she eases Nicole’s injured foot onto her lap, gently holding the ice pack in place with one hand and squeezing Nicole’s calf with the other hand when she winces despite herself. “Dodge it? Jump? Stand still? Do _something_ besides fall off the sidewalk?”

“You know me, Waves. Can’t get injured in regular ways.”

Calamity Jane hops up onto the couch, sniffing at the ice pack with a worried look at Nicole before settling on her stomach with a disgruntled sniff and a worried look in Waverly’s direction.

Nicole reaches down to pet the cat, who stretches into her hand with a purr before turning to glance expectantly at Waverly, who laughs and rests her hand on CJ’s back.

The instant her hand touches Nicole’s, another flash of almost-memory pierces the haze, and she glances to Nicole’s eyes, fully expecting to find the same look of realization on her face.

She does.

“She – the other me – ” Nicole splutters with a laugh, “This happened to her too. But she…I….” She bites her lower lip. “I was too busy watching you…do…something, and – ”

“Oh, God, you _were_ looking at me.” Waverly bites her lip, trying to keep a straight face. “We were…I think it was the Homecoming game? You walked right off the sidewalk!”

Nicole sits halfway up, reaching out to stroke Waverly’s hair, looking at it as though it’s the first time she’s ever seen it. “I had it bad.”

Waverly sighs. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I needed Wynonna to be brave enough to be scared.”

“I’m just glad…” Nicole trails off, looking away for a second. “…I’m glad we broke the spell. I’m glad I got to meet brave you. I’m way luckier than that other me.”

With a smile, Waverly nudges Calamity off of Nicole’s lap and carefully sets Nicole’s injured leg onto the couch before she gently shoves Nicole backwards until they’re both lying down and she’s curling up against Nicole’s left side. “Me too.”

* * *

“It’s not _fair_ ,” Waverly slurs, preceding Nicole up the stairs at the Homestead towards her bedroom.

“I know, Waves,” Nicole murmurs sympathetically, following with two ice packs, a cup of water, and a bottle of aspirin waiting for the moment when the Novocain wears off.

“There’s an a-apoc-apocalypse coming!”

“I know.”

“Why’d I hafta get my wisdom teeth out when there’s an apoca-apocalypse coming?!”

Nicole tucks Waverly into bed, gently stroking her brand new bangs away from her forehead. “‘Cause you already have enough wisdom, baby. You don’t need any more.”

“Shut up,” she mutters, blushing and looking away.

“Make me,” Nicole answers with a grin.

“Already did that.”

“Couldn’t hurt to try again. Only if you want to, of course,” Nicole adds; she always – _always_ – checks. Waverly, in her turn, just rolls her eyes and tugs Nicole closer.

Their lips touch and –

Another memory. Nicole pulls back with a startled gasp, only to find Waverly staring at her with a grin.

“You drove me home…from I don’t know…the doctor? From…” Waverly shakes her head; the memory is already dissolving. “I was so confused. You always went above and beyond for me and I didn’t know why.”

Nicole smiles a little wistfully. “Were you really? Confused?”

Waverly reaches up to take the hand cupping her cheek. “More about myself, I think.” As though it has a mind of its own, Nicole’s thumb begins to stroke a line along her jaw. “I’m glad I’m not confused now.”

“Me too, baby,” Nicole says, before she reaches out for the cup and the aspirin. “Novocain’s wearing off; you almost sound like yourself, so let’s get you comfortable, hmm?” She waits for Waverly to swallow the pills, then slips into bed next to her, pulling her close and kissing her forehead before gently resting an ice pack against each of Waverly’s cheeks.

Waverly looks up at her and they have another one of _those_ moments – when their eyes lock and things they can’t or haven’t said swirl in the air between them.

And then Nicole thinks about the danger they’re all in; she’s already almost died twice, for God’s sake. With Bulshar free, there’s a good chance the next minute – _any_ next minute – could bring an actual apocalypse. She decides she doesn’t want to wait until she’s at death’s door or the world’s ending. “Waves?”

“Hmm?”

“I do believe in soulmates.”

“Me too,” Waverly says drowsily.

“And you’re mine.”

“Duh.”

Nicole laughs, pulling Waverly even closer, and firmly closes her eyes.

A few moments later, Waverly murmurs, “You’re mine too.”

It’s not an _I love you_ , but that’s what it means; they both know that. Which makes the only logical response: “I know.”

Silence falls again.

Then Nicole adds in a whisper, “Please don’t tell Jeremy I quoted _Star Wars_. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

**Author's Note:**

> A quick, final, unrelated note here. Be kind to the teachers in your lives, who are basically building an airplane mid-flight as everyone shifts to "distance learning." This is especially hard for those of us (*cough* me *cough*) who have an almost phobia-level of fear about being on camera and now get to teach primarily via videoconferencing. (It's *super* fun, she said sarcastically.)
> 
> Stay safe, stay healthy, and be kind to yourselves.


End file.
